Substantial restriction of blood flow in the vascular system can lead to oxygen deprivation in the affected tissue, which is commonly referred to as ischemia. Ischemia can rapidly cause cellular and neurological necrosis, leading to organ dysfunction and even death. Moreover, ischemic conditions can arise due to vascular occlusions, typically caused by blood clots and/or undesired tissue growth or lesions on the inner walls of blood vessels that reduce blood flow.
It has long been known that reducing tissue temperature, i.e., instituting a hypothermic state, reduces the metabolic rate and thereby provides some protective measure against ischemic consequences. Such hypothermic conditions are routinely induced during invasive surgeries to protect organs such as the brain and heart from surgical interruptions in blood flow. Hypothermia has also been shown to be effective in controlling swelling of the brain in trauma and stroke patients.
In addition to inducing hypothermic conditions during invasive surgery, systemic hypothermia has also been applied, such as by cooling blood going to a specific organ or immersion of the patient's body in a cool bath, where the depth and duration of hypothermia is limited by the patient's ability to tolerate the therapy. While such methods may effectively reduce the temperature and metabolic rate of large portions of a patient's body, such invasive and systemic techniques are excessive and undesirable where ischemic conditions are prevalent in a specific region of the patient's anatomy.
As such, in light of the above limitations, it would be desirable to provide for the treatment of a vascular occlusion while limiting ischemic damage by cooling the tissue affected by the loss of blood flow due to the vascular occlusion.